Since 2009, Illinois state law allows municipalities to arrange for the provision of electricity to residential and small commercial retail customers by alternative electric suppliers (i.e. suppliers other than ComEd). This process is known as electricity load aggregation. Electricity is still delivered by ComEd, which remains responsible for customer service, such as billing and outage response.
Deerfield approved an electricity aggregation program by referendum in March 2012. The Village joined with other municipalities in the North Shore Electricity Aggregation Consortium to operate the program from 2012 through 2017 and provide lower electricity rates to residents. In 2017, the Village paused its aggregation program when it could no longer guarantee residents would save money compared to ComEd’s default rate. Aggregation did not become economical again until recently, and mc2 was selected by the Consortium in early 2021 through a competitive bidding process open to all Illinois electricity suppliers.